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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27247663">arcadian</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/macabre/pseuds/macabre'>macabre</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, M/M, Parent Bruce Banner, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is Bruce Banner's Biological Child, Protective Tony Stark, Science Family, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Feels, the softest of families</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:53:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,215</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27247663</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/macabre/pseuds/macabre</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce has stopped dinner to watch them. Tony doesn’t have to ask what he’s thinking about. “You’re really good with him,” Bruce comments later when it’s just the two of them. His glasses slip down his nose. He pushes them back up, looking at Tony to make sure he’s been heard. </p><p>He has. Tony is just ignoring him. </p><p>"Sometimes, I think you might be better with him than me.”</p><p> </p><p>(The Science Family AU in which Peter is Bruce's kid and he gets his dad back together with his ex, Tony Stark.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Peter Parker &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>213</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>arcadian</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Apparently, when your alter ego is a green machine known for destruction, it’s easier to hide other secrets because all people care about are news captions about mass destruction and possible lives lost. A secret like a secret love child, for instance, goes right under the radar. </p><p>	Maybe Tony should have known from how it all started: it’s raining, an old friend shows up on his literal doorstep dripping wet with a bashful smile. They haven’t seen each other for awhile - not since Ultron, not since Bruce semi-lived with him for a year, dropping in and out and collaborating with Tony on all sorts of things, then disappearing with only a post-it stuck to DUM-E with the words thank you scribbled on it. </p><p>	“Hey, Tony,” Bruce says so softly Tony can’t hear it over the rain, but he can read his lips. There are new lines around Bruce’s eyes - he’s been smiling a lot, wherever he’s been. “Been awhile.”</p><p>	Tony ignores him for the moment, gesturing behind him to the smaller figure that is actually vibrating like a ticking time bomb. “Who’s this?”</p><p>	“Ah,” his friend says, as if he’s made some kind of discovery. He removes his glasses and wipes them down with a corner of his damp shirt. “This is Peter Parker. He’s my son.”</p><p>	Later - much, much later - Peter will tell Tony that there is a fainting scene in every great romance. Not that Tony fainted at that moment - not exactly. It’s more like his vision became slightly fuzzier and all thoughts stopped and he needed Bruce to help him sit down before he fell down.</p><p>	“Son? He couldn’t have a son. I’d have known about it by now. SHEILD would have known about it by now.” Tony continues a stream of consciousness out loud, and Bruce sighs heavily above him.</p><p>	“Tony. Tony, can you listen to me?” Bruce looks back at Peter, who is watching with apt concern. “No one knew about Peter. I didn’t know about Peter until recently.”</p><p>	“Jesus, after Clint pulled all that bullshit with a secret family? There’s no way. No way.”</p><p>	“Tony.”</p><p>	“Not my Brucie, he wouldn’t hide that from me, he would -”</p><p>	“Tony.” Bruce gently grips Tony’s chin and turns his face to look at him. He smiles. Tony smiles back, because it’s Bruce, and Bruce is all he can see. “Would you mind if we crash here for a bit?”</p><p>	Tony doesn’t live in a tower anymore; he spends most of his time in a brownstone that he bought because he thought it would convince Pepper of… Well, of something that never really came to fruition. Of course, it may look like a brownstone from the curb, but inside its been completely redone and suited to Tony’s needs. Maybe that’s why Pepper remained unconvinced. </p><p>	“Uh. Yeah. Yeah, sure.”</p><p>	“Great. Introductions are in order then, I think. Tony, this is Peter. Peter - Tony.”</p><p>	The kid rocks back and forth on his toes, teething at his lower lip. When Tony makes a vague gesture at him, he explodes: “Oh, my Gosh - Mr. Stark, it is such an honor to meet you! I can’t believe I’m really here, talking to Tony Stark! Wow, and now I can see that he decorates with Asimov posters and - ” Peter stops at Bruce’s gentle hand on his shoulder.</p><p>	“Peter is a fan of yours, Tony.” Bruce is shooting Peter some kind of look - a weary one, maybe.</p><p>	Tony just blinks owlishly. It’s too early in the goddamn morning for this. He stands, waving away Bruce’s concern as he careens a little, and heads towards the kitchen to hunt down his next cup of coffee.</p><p>	He hasn’t lived with anyone in awhile. Bruce and Peter immediately take up space that Tony doesn’t miss. There are enough bedrooms and living room spaces, two different kitchens even. Somehow, they invade every personal spot that Tony cultivated as his favorites though. The lab is one thing - he had only limited space for a lab in the sub level of this home, so it makes sense that Bruce makes himself at home the very next day with Tony down there. </p><p>	He didn’t expect pipsqueak to join them though. “Oh, he’s been up for hours waiting for me to come down so he could too,” Bruce says, reading over some graphics that Tony pulls up for him. Peter lingers in the background, trying to read over their shoulders too.</p><p>	“How old is he?”</p><p>	“Fourteen. I’m fourteen, Mr. Stark,” Peter says, but his exuberance and bedhead make him look all of ten. </p><p>	“You can ask Peter anything you’d like to know, Tony.” Bruce wheels away on his stool, apparently caught up enough to move on. “He’s old enough to answer for himself.”</p><p>	“But not old enough to be down here unsupervised,” Tony says. “Got it, pipsqueak?”</p><p>	Peter nods quickly. “Of course, Mr. Stark. Really, it’s just so cool to be here! I couldn’t believe it when Bruce said where we were going. Of course - finding out Bruce Banner is your dad? Whoa. Whole other level.” Peter mimes his head exploding. Then he launches into the story of how he found out about Bruce without Tony having to ask, which is nice, because he does want to know, but after the kid talks nonstop for the next five minutes, Tony has to interrupt him.</p><p>	“Hey, hey - jabberjaw,” Tony interrupts by placing a hand on the kid’s shoulder. Peter looks between said hand and Tony with a slack mouth and starry eyes. “Take a breath for me, okay? I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you, apparently.”</p><p>	Bruce does fill him in on some of the details of the past couple of years slowly, usually whenever Peter isn’t around. Bruce doesn’t explain everything, but it’s enough for Tony to hear that, as usual, Bruce hasn’t made life easy for himself, up until the moment he found out about Peter, after which he knew he needed a stable environment. </p><p>	How stable his home is - well, Tony thinks that’s another question.</p><p>	It’s too easy for he and Bruce to fall back into their old routines. There is little semblance to a normal workday - sometimes they do rise with the sun and fall with it, too, but there are still forty-eight hour benders of nothing but bumping bits of information across the lab. They try to be good about eating with Peter and making sure he eats too - the kid is way too thin, but Tony quickly learns that’s not because he doesn’t eat. He’ll eat literally anything and everything put in front of him, but won’t usually help himself in the kitchen if no one else is around.</p><p>	Tony starts hanging out in the kitchen with the kid more and more. Peter will try and cook something for them, and what a fourteen-year-old boy comes up with for nutrition is the therapy Tony has been missing out on all this time. </p><p>	Peter, who doesn’t put milk on his cereal and uses peanut butter instead. “Hey, it’s got protein!” he’ll say. Peter who made a dinner bowl with broccoli, melted pepperjack, and strips of pepperoni. “Hey, Mr. Stark, what do you think about two Pop-tarts as bread, and maybe some ham in between?”</p><p>	Tony doesn’t even try to hide his laughter anymore, because Peter knows that Tony isn’t actually trying to laugh at him, at him. Peter always eats these abominations that he creates, and sometimes, if he’s lucky, he’ll goad Tony into trying a bite too. </p><p>	“Mr. Stark, have you ever tried solving canonical commutation relations without Fourier coefficients?” Peter asks while sipping a shot of espresso that Tony offered him while he made his own. He makes a face at the bitter profile, but neither Tony nor Bruce put restrictions on his culinary adventures and this was mostly for Tony’s enjoyment anyway.</p><p>	That’s the other thing about Peter - he is categorically brilliant. “He’s definitely your kid,” Tony mumbles to Bruce after Peter appears out of nowhere in the lab and offers to take notes for them, as if Tony Stark didn’t invent his own AI two decades ago to do that for him. As if a fourteen-year-old could keep up with two of the greatest minds alive - but he can.</p><p>	Not that the kid knows everything - of course not, but Peter’s brain is already on par with his own at that age, and Tony has no doubt that with his own resources at the kid’s disposal that he will rival both himself and Bruce when he’s older. </p><p>	“I’m glad you’re here,” Tony confides to Bruce one night as they emerge to watch the sunset. That’s right - they left not only the lab, but also the house, thank you very much. Peter remains inside, napping on a couch with some show on mute. “I think it’s good for both of you. Peter’s got unlimited access to learn, and I can shelter you from Ross as much as possible for as long as possible.”</p><p>	“And you.” Bruce clasps Tony’s hand. “We’re here for you, too.” Then he gives Tony this look - an undeniably soft thing. “You’re good with him, you know.”</p><p>	“Never thought I’d be excited to have a teenager living with me, but Peter’s different. He’s,” Tony makes vague hand motions. “You know. Special. Brilliant. Yours.”</p><p>	Bruce smiles. “He’ll be just as much yours when things are said and done.”</p><p>	When they return from their walk, Bruce joins Tony on the roof. They toast each other with decaf so they can sleep later and lounge in the family sized hammock that Tony bought because Peter mentioned that he always wanted to have one. The two of them lie facing each other and swing gently back and forth. It’s quiet, and it’s so much better now that Tony has Bruce’s bare feet resting partially in his lap, and he knows that when they go back inside there will be a kid ready to destroy his kitchen and ask him about matrix mechanics and how he feels about Sichuan peppercorns all in the same breath. </p><p>	In all actuality, Tony falls asleep, and when he makes back up, Peter has crawled onto the other side of Bruce and rests with his head against his dad’s shoulder. He’s also sleeping, but Bruce is wide awake, his profile turned to Tony as he watches something in the distance. </p><p>	Steve used to talk of the team as a family, and Tony who hardly came from a functioning family believed every word he said, but now he looks at this scene and thinks: this is it. </p><p>	Neither of them move until Peter wakes up, then the three of them move silently into the kitchen and again, without a word shared between them, all allow Bruce to take over dinner duty for the night, otherwise they might be there for awhile and still end up with something hardly edible by even teenage standards.</p><p>	Peter leans against Tony this time as they sit side-by-side at the kitchen island. He’s still tired and uncharacteristically quiet, probably because he’s starving. Tony elbows him, “Tell me what culinary discovery you made today, kid.”</p><p>	“Nothing, Mr. Stark. I just ate Bagel Bites.”</p><p>	“Bagel Bites, eh? And you didn’t add anything to them? Not a single thing?”</p><p>	Peter cracks a smile and pushes his face into Tony’s shoulder. It’s something that would strike Tony as childishly annoying from any other kid, but on Peter - it’s just fucking adorable. “Well, I did add some chili oil.”</p><p>	“Kid, that actually sounds decent.” </p><p>	Peter perks up and looks up at him. “You want some tomorrow?”</p><p>	“Absolutely.”</p><p>	“Cool, I can bring it down and we can have another picnic in the lab. I’mma make Dum-E wear the gingham apron again.”</p><p>	Bruce has stopped chopping to watch them. Tony doesn’t have to ask what he’s thinking about. “You’re really good with him,” Bruce comments later when it’s just the two of them. His glasses slip down his nose. He pushes them back up, looking at Tony to make sure he’s been heard. </p><p>	He has. Tony is just ignoring him. </p><p>	“Sometimes, I think you might be better with him than me.”</p><p>	“Bruce, that is unequivocally false. You’re his father.”</p><p>	Bruce just shrugs. He doesn’t look upset or anything of the kind - instead he looks peaceful, thoughtful. “I haven’t known him much longer than you, and you and I both know - a father by blood isn’t the end all, be all of paternity.” </p><p>	Tony goes back to work on his newest schematics. He thinks the conversation has lapsed, then: “If something happens to me, will you be his guardian?”</p><p>	Tony drops the screwdriver in his hand. “What?”</p><p>	“If something happens to me, I want you to take care of Peter. He trusts you.”</p><p>	“Brucie Bear, we’ve talked about this - almost nothing could kill the Hulk, and there’s little chance someone would get to Bruce Banner before meeting the Hulk.”</p><p>	“I’m not talking about death even, I’m talking about if Ross gets his way, or any of the number of men out there like Ross. You don’t have to answer me now, but Peter’s not had an easy run of it. He’s already had to pick up with someone he’d never even met before, and I’d rather he not have to again.”</p><p>	“Bruce, I’m not going to let anything happen to you, or Peter.” There’s a simmer in his blood just thinking about it. Tony truly has no idea how Bruce can keep everything so contained. The idea of someone coming for a defenseless fourteen-year-old kid makes him feel absolutely murderous, like he could pick up the merchant of death title again like it is nothing, but even the idea of someone trying to throw the Hulk down a hole so far they think Tony Stark can’t find him, even though it’s not the first time they’ve spoken of it, makes Tony want to fucking kick the closest wall until he can’t move that foot anymore.</p><p>	“Just think about it, okay?”</p><p>	And then it's all Tony can think about: he spends his days watching Peter putz around in the lab, working on some kind of sticky solvent that reminds Tony of glorified silly string. When it gets in his hair, it’s not Bruce who helps the kid get a haircut, but Tony, standing very still and very close over Peter’s head as he jabbers on and cares not for Tony’s nerves. He is the one holding the scissors, after all, and the kid doesn’t exactly sit still. They do alright - Peter’s hair is now too short to properly curl, but Tony would never admit to anyone that he misses it. </p><p>	He sweeps up the curls off the floor with his hands when no one is watching and thinks about how parents save locks of hair from their babies’ first haircuts.</p><p>	“Peter, do you like living here?” he asks the kid over breakfast for lunch, his chin in his hand. </p><p>	Peter perks up immediately, whipping his head around to look at him. “I love it, Mr. Stark! …Why? Why do you ask?”</p><p>	Tony shrugs. He can’t tell Peter or Bruce about all the houses he has FRIDAY bookmark for him. Houses in the middle of nowhere, houses in suburbia. Houses made for families that don’t exist by creation of a murder merchant. Kids are supposed to have room to grow up, right?</p><p>	“You’re not kicking us out, are you?” Peter asks, and Tony startles.</p><p>	“No! No, of course not.” Tony can’t help his feet - he jumps up and rounds the island to where Peter presides over a frying pan. “Peter, do you know how long you’ve lived here?</p><p>	“Ugh.” Tony can watch Peter try to work it out. “Four months?”</p><p>	“More than that. One hundred and thirty-three days.”</p><p>	“Uh - did you count because you want us to leave?”</p><p>	Tony laughs; he can’t help it. “No, Peter. I don’t know how to explain it to you kid, but I wouldn’t let someone move into my home for that long unless I wanted them to stay. This isn’t a tower or a Stark complex - this is a house, Peter. You have a room. Bruce has a room. Get it?”</p><p>	“So.” Peter’s still got that look on his face, trying to work something out. “So, we can stay as long as we want?”</p><p>	“Kid. You’re family now.”</p><p>	Peter sometimes still gets that starry eyed look when he looks at Tony or looks around the lab at the robots and the sentinel suits - right now, it’s almost hard to look at. Tony can’t tell the kid how much he’d miss him if they left; it probably wouldn’t even sound believable to Peter if he tried, but Tony guesses that’s for him to know, and for Peter to find out. </p><p>	Of course, it’s not just Peter he’d miss.</p><p>	After Peter’s impromptu haircut, Bruce quietly slips a pair of scissors into Tony’s hand late one night. His hair is way longer than Tony’s ever seen it, but he wonders still if it’s ever been longer, and what Bruce would look like with hair long enough to pull back.  </p><p>	“It’s quite the intimate thing,” Bruce says in a volume of a whisper but the decidedness of speaking. Tony nearly jerks his hand enough to cut a bald spot in, but he remains steady. Peter was good practice since the kid didn’t sit still.</p><p>	Bruce’s eyes slide from staring into the open air before him and meeting Tony’s eyes in the bathroom mirror. </p><p>	“What’s that, Brucie?” Tony deflects in his signature tone.</p><p>	Bruce smiles, from just one corner of his mouth. “Cutting someone’s hair. It’s an intimate thing.”</p><p>	Intimacy is all sorts of things, and a lot of them are things taught to Tony by Bruce and Peter. Intimacy with Peter is learning to hide all sorts of snacks in the kid’s backpack when he returns to school in the fall, it’s not thinking twice about what class he has in which hour. Intimacy with Bruce is near complete nonverbal communication most days in which they somehow orbit each other to work on the same projects or different projects side-by-side. It’s Tony’s complete and utter belief that if the Hulk were to come out right now, he’d be as sedate as the giant stuffed bunny he once bought his ex-girlfriend. </p><p>	Intimacy is not flinching in this moment.</p><p>	Tony clears his dry throat. “Bruce, we’re not going to start this again. Not if - ”</p><p>	“Not if I’m going to run away.” Bruce slides his hand onto Tony’s. “Wouldn’t be that easy anymore.”</p><p>	Tony pulls away though; they’ve been down this road once before, not so long ago, even if it does feel like ages have passed. It was Pepper, then Bruce, then Pepper. Now Bruce? His heart can’t take it anymore. </p><p>	Once the haircut is finished, Tony retreats to his room, the one space that neither Bruce or Peter ever step foot in. He thinks about bailing out of the house and into the office - surely there’s something they could use him for - but the thought is put on hold when the fire alarm goes off. It’s only briefly - Peter sets it off now and again when cooking, and FRIDAY always turns it off for him since it’s never an emergency - but it’s enough that Tony decides to wade out and check on him. </p><p>	“Whatcha making there, Petey Pie?” he asks, sitting down at an island stool.</p><p>	Peter frowns over the dark masses stuck on the baking sheet. “They were supposed to be eclairs, but they didn’t rise. And I burnt them.” </p><p>	“But I bet you didn’t flavor them with chocolate or raspberry, am I right?”</p><p>	The kid grins. “I found some sage in your pantry, and I’ve never used it before, but I know I see lots of fancy deserts with a ‘hint of sage,’ so I threw it in with the brown butter in the cream pat, but it doesn’t matter, Mr. Stark. I won’t be filling these anyway.”</p><p>	Suddenly, Tony feels like crying. It’s been awhile since he’s had a good cry, but now’s not the time, not in front of the kid. He snatches one of the burnt darlings off of the baking sheet and crunches on it - it disintegrates into dry crumbs in his mouth. “Mr. Stark!” Peter protests, but he’s laughing.</p><p>	“It’s not so bad, kid. Not the worst thing I’ve eaten.”</p><p>	“The worst thing you’ve ever had was most definitely still made by me though, so.” Peter shrugs. Tony stands and swoops in with a quick kiss on top of Peter’s head. He looks up at Tony with a shocked and almost scared look. </p><p>	“Peter, you, and your culinary adventures, are some of the best things that ever happened to me.”</p><p>	Tony waits until he’s hidden away again in his room for the night before some tears slip out. Enough time has passed that the heartache and collapse isn’t as bad as it could have been, but he thinks about Peter and how much he loves having him around. He thinks about Bruce and how nice it could be, but he’s Tony Stark and his track record is hideous. When things don’t work out, Bruce will leave and take Peter with him, and that will be as bad as the sting of losing Bruce for the second time. Maybe worse. </p><p>	Needless to say, Tony puts on a brave face the next day and tries to act like everything is absolutely the same. Nothing has changed. Bruce isn’t flirting with him over his disgusting turmeric shake and Peter didn’t just ask Tony to come to watch his nerdy academic team compete like the parent he desperately pretends to be. No. That’s not what’s happening here at all. Bruce doesn’t take Tony’s hand while they take a walk around the park because it’s freezing out and Tony is too nervous to take the time to put on gloves. They definitely don’t tag team it and embarrass the hell out of Peter when he comes home talking about a girl named Liz at school, and once the year anniversary passes of them moving in, Tony definitely doesn’t help Peter bake them all a cake to celebrate. </p><p>	Peter has marked the year in growing two inches. Tony has marked his year by doubling the amount of grey in his hair, and Bruce counts his new laugh lines. When Bruce brings up the subject of Peter learning to drive, and if Tony might be the one to teach him, Tony can’t stand it anymore - he grabs Bruce by the front of his shirt and hauls him into the closest room - Bruce’s.</p><p>	“This,” Tony says, motioning in-between them, “if this doesn’t work out, I still want to be able to see Peter.”</p><p>	Bruce just smiles. “Yes, Tony, I know.” He takes off his glasses to clean them, and Tony counts the clockwise turns on one lens before he reverses the motion. It’s a repetitive habit of Bruce’s that he could replicate in his sleep.  “Peter wouldn’t be able to stay away from you, Tony. You don’t need to be afraid of that relationship, and you don’t need to be afraid of this one, either.”</p><p>	Bruce rises from the bed where Tony pushed him down. He crosses the room very slowly, so as if not to spook him, then he takes Tony’s face between his hands. It’s such a serious and sincere moment that it makes Tony laugh a little to himself, hysterically. Bruce doesn’t mind; he just smiles and kisses him very softly for the moment. </p><p>	Later, Tony turns to Bruce in bed. His bed. Bruce has moved into his room, and it’s not like Tony had cleared out space in the closet or his drawers or anything waiting. They’ve taken up romantically where things were cut off years ago, and now it’s been a few weeks and Tony has even more to worry about. Ross knows about Bruce’s locale with Tony - he’s sure of it. There’s a lingering question of whether Ross knows about Peter’s identity, but the answer is most likely yes, and it keeps him up at night thinking about Ross showing up at the kid’s school. </p><p>	He also frets about all sorts of other things. “We should tell Peter, right? Like, kids have the right to know who their parent is dating, and in some ways we’ve gone about this kind of backwards, and Peter should know that -”</p><p>	“Tony. He knows.” Bruce flips the page in the book he’s reading. </p><p>	“He knows? What do you mean? You told him? Without me?” Tony feels a little hurt, a little relieved. The moment of telling Peter they’re dating is a moment that in some ways justifies Tony’s relationship with Peter in a tangible way that Tony loves, but now he’s missed it. </p><p>	“Honey, I didn’t need to tell him. He’s been trying to parent trap us all along.”</p><p>	“What now?</p><p>	Bruce puts down his book, but with one finger inside it, meaning he doesn’t intend to put it down for long. “Who’s idea do you think it was to come here?”</p><p>	“It wasn’t yours?”</p><p>	Bruce just shakes his head. “Peter seemed to be aware of some - uh - rumors about us, shall we say, and I think when he suggested that Tony Stark was the one person who could keep us safe, he knew very well what he was doing.”</p><p>	“…What?”</p><p>	Bruce just picks his book back up and pats Tony on the arm without looking at him. “I try not to take it personally that you’re with me partially for the kid, too.”</p><p>	They do sit down Peter and tell him formally that they’re dating and that not much is going to change, but Peter makes faces when they kiss now over dinner now or Tony slaps Bruce’s ass on the way down to the lab. Peter always laughs after making a face though and asks if he can move into Bruce’s old room.</p><p>	Hence, one day, when it’s just Peter and Tony behind the wheel of the car and Tony can relax enough to concentrate on what Peter’s saying after they’ve successfully merged on the highway, Peter explains that all great love stories start with someone fainting.</p><p>	“You do recall that your dad and I technically started way before that day, right?” Tony asks, but Peter just waves his hand at him.</p><p>	“Yeah, but this time was the time that mattered. The ultimate meet cute. It sealed the deal!”</p><p>	Peter’s not wrong. </p><p>	Other people in their lives learn about Tony and Bruce, and eventually, about Peter too. It’d be hard not to - when Pepper or Clint and Natasha or even Steve visit, it’s all around them. The photos on the fridge of the three of them. Towers of stacked tupperware of baked treats and abandoned dinners. The way Peter announces his presence by running into the room and jumping on Tony’s back. </p><p>	“Peter.” Bruce frowns at him, after the kid’s managed to knock Tony and himself to the ground. Tony turns over and grabs at Peter, wrestling him into submission. Bruce sighs. “Tony.”</p><p>	Tony would never admit it to anyone, but he thinks about how he’s only had Peter for such a small time now, but the kid feels like his. Well and truly. Tony so wishes he could have met baby Peter, or toddler Peter. He misses the photos they don’t have, or the baby books and stuffed animals. He longs for something he can’t ever have, and yet knows he should be insanely grateful that he gets even this. Besides, it’s not as if Bruce got those things either. In reality, Bruce hasn’t had Peter any longer. </p><p>	“I’m insanely fond of you, you know?” Tony says to Bruce one night, propped up on Bruce’s chest. </p><p>	Bruce kind of rolls his eyes, kind of smiles. “This better not end with a ring, Tony Stark.”</p><p>	“Naw. I just thought you should know.”</p><p>	“I love you too, Tony.”</p><p>	“It’s just sometimes I wish we could have had it all, you know? The baby. Raising him from infancy and seeing every first.”</p><p>	“We’re not having another child, Tony. I can’t deal with the two of you as is.” Bruce fondly touches the corner of Tony’s eye, brushes his fingers back into his hair. “But I know what you mean,” he adds softly.</p><p>	The thing Tony loves most about Bruce is his fierce and unwavering kindness, even though everyone else in the world sees only his monstrous side. The thing Tony loves most about Peter is that he has the same exact quality, even if he shows it in different ways.</p><p>	One morning Tony is working by himself, blowtorch literally in hand, when the little shit sneaks up on him. Peter takes a running start, runs up half a wall before back flipping onto a nearby table with a loud bang. Peter looks out a whoop and laughs, pumping a fist in the air, while Tony looks between the kid, his blowtorch (still lit), and the kid. </p><p>	He turns it off and throws it down. “Peter Parker! You are asking for it!”</p><p>	“Relax, Pops. I was just excited to see what you’re doing.” Peter comes up beside him for a one armed hugged. Tony brings him closer for a quick kiss to his temple - it won’t be long now before Peter is off to college and Tony has already had meltdowns about it in privacy. </p><p>	“What are you making for lunch?”</p><p>	Peter smirks at him. “What do you want me to make for lunch?”</p><p>	Tony scoffs. “You know, you used to earn your keep around here more, kid.”</p><p>	“Yeah, but after Dad sealed the deal, I figured my cuteness was enough.” Peter laughs, and Tony playfully shoves him towards the door and up the stairs. </p><p>	“We’ll see about that kid.”</p><p>	When they make it upstairs, they find Bruce snoring on the couch, bare feet stuck out in the sun coming from the window and his glasses dangling out of one hand. Tony turns to Peter, and Peter to Tony - without a word, they swiftly and quietly launch themselves over the back of the couch and on top of Bruce. He yells, more from being startled than anything else, but frowns at them as he pretends to rub at his stomach where Tony knows he was very careful and gentle.</p><p>	“I long for the days when people were too scared to do anything around me. Long for them.” Bruce shoves the glances back on his face and turns onto his side and feigns going back to sleep. Tony and Peter take their leave to the kitchen where Tony takes a familiar seat at the island to watch Peter rummage around the cupboards, except now everything is placed exactly where he put it. </p><p>	“Love you, Petey Pie.”</p><p>	Peter’s head pops up from where he was digging through the bottom shelf of the kitchen island cabinets. “Huh?”</p><p>	“Don’t act like you can’t hear me.”</p><p>	Peter just gives him a wicked grin, twirling a large pan in his hands. “But answer me this - what do you want?”</p><p>	Tony rolls his eyes. “And don’t act like you haven’t planned out some monstrosity already. You’re the mastermind of this family.”</p><p>	“And don’t you forget it!”</p><p>	Forget it? How could he?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know I have more than one WIP I should be working on, and I promise I am, but I wrote most of this like six months ago so I decided to give it a rough finish and post it. Originally, it was going to be angstier with a good old fashioned Peter kidnapping by Ross, but I decided we could all use something light-hearted. There should be more Tony/Bruce with Peter thrown in. I firmly believe and stand by it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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